Messy
by Itarille Celebrindal
Summary: Messy. It means a lot of things to a lot of people. But right now, it means Mary in Cancun and not here. It means clutter and a lack of control...and, to two people, it just might mean something more. Season finale spoilers.
1. Origami

Disclaimer: _In Plain Sight_ and all its characters belong to USA Network and those mean producers who left us all hanging in the season finale.

It was times like these that made Marshall Mann wonder if his life was a giant cosmic joke. Because...Faber...seriously? He manages, not once, but TWICE, to all but wave a giant sign in his partner's face that said 'Pick Me'...and she goes to Can-freaking-cun with that FBI joker.

He made such a face at the little origami swan on his desk that he caught Stan ducking back into his office, shaking his head and avoiding whatever inevitable rant would have erupted from the taller half of his Wit-Sec team's mouth. The lanky cowboy had been all but intolerable in the week since Mary Shannon had jetted off to make use of her vacation time and she was still scheduled to be gone for another week. It was just safer inside his enclosed office for now. Especially as the aforementioned origami swan went flying into the trashcan with an audible growl, joining it's fifty predecessors.

Marshall ignored the audible click of his boss's door as it shut again and dragged another sheet of Mary's paperwork towards him to start folding once more. There was something very therapeutic about the precise, measured movements involved in the art...and something very cathartic about the act of slamming the finished piece into the trashcan when he was through with it. If Mary had been at her desk, she would have already spent the last fifteen minutes ridiculing his kindergarten art projects...but then that was the problem, wasn't it? She wasn't there. She was in Cancun. With Faber.

He crushed the half finished boat in his hand at the thought. Twice...two times he basically says to her face how much he cares...and she waltzes off like he had just passed along the weekend's weather forecast. It was almost enough to make him give up on the tall, snarky blonde he had fallen for so many years ago. His fingers toyed with his mouse, waving the cursor over the link to the internal webpage that listed position openings as it had every day since he found out just who exactly she was meeting in Mexico—he bet that Faber didn't even know a word of Spanish anyway, so really, what use was he there to begin with?

It was with a resigned sigh that he flexed his fingers, about to click the maddening, taunting link when his phone jerked to life, vibrating madly on the table. Marshall released the mouse and picked it up, glancing down at the screen before he flipped it open. Mary's name glowed brightly up at him as he brought up her message:

_Hey numbnuts...Back on Thursday at 9. You better have finished my work by then. -M_

Smiling broadly, Marshall reached over to close the window on his computer and settled back into his chair, liberating the last swan from its place atop the trashcan. He fiddled with it for a moment before rising to go place it on the corner of Mary's desk. He grabbed his phone to tap out a quick response to his partner: _Only if you're paying. -M_ and headed out of the office, whistling a happy tune.

He knew what her text really meant: I'm coming home to you, please pick me up at the airport, I've missed you and I want pie.

Yes, he could give up...but where would the fun (and pie) be in that?


	2. Easy

Disclaimer: _In Plain Sight_ belongs to USA Network and its producers.

He had to think she was a complete moron. Mary shook her head as she looked out the window of the airplane, her forehead pressed to the pane made of some material that was sure to have provoked a long diatribe from her lanky partner had he been with her. But he wasn't with her and it was both the source of her problems and the solution.

Messy.

Maybe she did need messy in her life. It was why she was on this godforsaken plane on the way to godforsaken Cancun, Mexico for two weeks. But that wasn't why she was meeting Faber there. She was meeting him because it was _easy. _Easy meant no worries about breaking up a partnership that has worked for longer than any relationship she's ever had. It meant not worrying about having her heart broken, despite the fact that somewhere, deep inside, she knew he'd never do that.

Easy meant two weeks of mind-numbingly great sex by, on, around, and near the beach with a man she didn't have to rely on and who wouldn't let her run roughshod over him. Easy meant she could go home, to Marshall, and not worry about whether or not she would break him too or if they would no longer be allowed to work together.

And later, easy meant getting bored with a man who could never, ever measure up to the cowboy who knows way too much about everything and always has her back. It means leaving that man naked in bed, to shove her things into her small duffel bag and request a ride to the airport.

Messy.

It's a text that says ___Hey numbnuts...Back on Thursday at 9. You better have finished my work by then _but really means "I miss you, please pick me up and bring me home." And maybe, just maybe, it might mean "I love you too."


	3. Quiet

Disclaimer: _In Plain Sight_ belongs to USA Network...And many excited squees for a two season renewal!

It's an hour past the scheduled arrival time when Marshall finally sees the small commuter plane pull up to the gate at the ABQ airport. He had been waiting for over two hours by that point, but it was all but forgotten when the door popped open, the flight attendant nodding to the ramp technician as he drove the stairs into place.

He ignored the random trivia that popped into his head and stood up, moving towards the door with a flash of his Marshal badge. It wasn't something he was wont to do in normal circumstances, but he didn't regret it even for a second when he saw the blonde head disembark from the jet, tousled and messy hair a match for the wrinkled dress she wore.

She hadn't seen him yet, as she grabbed her duffel bag from the plane-side checked rack, and he suddenly found himself more nervous than he expected. His little speech and her elopement had been easy to ignore via text messages about arrival times and good-natured snarkiness, but face-to-face was an entirely different animal.

"Quit dozing, numbnuts, I'm tired," she said when she had finally spotted him, interrupting his errant thoughts.

He smiled and was prepared to fire back with an inane comment, just the way she liked, when he noticed the fatigue that dulled her green eyes and the limp position of her shoulders. As much as he would have liked to _talk _right then and there...he could tell it was neither the time nor the place.

So he simply reached out and took the bag from her hands, guiding her out of the airport with a whisper light touch to her back. The ride home was silent and she didn't blink when they pulled into his driveway and not her own. She merely nodded her thanks, something deeper lurking in her eyes, when he bundled her into the guestroom, a fluffy towel and warm shower awaiting her. He smiled, squeezed her hand briefly, and retreated to his room.

Sometimes love was apologies and deep conversation...and sometimes it was knowing when to be quiet and just _there._


	4. Expectations

Disclaimer: IPS is not mine...I know...sadface.

For someone who had just come back from a week-long vacation, Mary had never felt as relaxed as she did when she stepped out of Marshall's guest bathroom, a fluffy towel wraped snugly around her body, wet hair clinging to her shoulders. As girly as her partner could be sometimes, he had _excellent_ taste in shower heads. Twenty minutes in there and she had literally felt the tension melt away from her body.

She stood for a moment, contemplating her visage in the mirror, twisting her hair around her fingers until an awkward cough attracted her attention. Mary turned around and caught sight of her lanky cowboy, an entirely too amusing flush covering his cheekbones as he leaned against the door.

It was all she could do to keep from laughing when he stared blankly at the towel, _his_ towel, wrapped low across her chest. She could almost convince herself that she had seen him lick his lips too.

"Hey moron, why don't you finish perving on my tits some other time and tell me why you're in my bedroom," she said, smirking as she crossed her arms over her chest. If it happened to push up said bodyparts in question, well, she couldn't really be blamed.

She watched with interest as his adam's apple bobbed up and down when he swallowed to regain his composure.

"Well, I figured that whenever Sleeping Beauty woke up, she might require nourishment in the form of chocolate chip pancakes, but perhaps I was mistaken," Marshall drawled, blue eyes twinkling at her from within his own amused face.

Mary would never admit to it, but the little spark in his eyes did something funny to her stomach that had absolutely nothing to do with how famished she was.

"I knew I kept you around for some reason, Pervis!" she crowed instead, using one arm to back him out of the room so she could shut the door and change.

She wasn't normally the type to spend hours on presentation, but the speed with which she threw on a pair of Marshall's old pyjama pants and a tank top was a record even for her. Within moments, she was sliding into a seat in his breakfast nook—because _of course_ Marshall would have a _nook—_and he was placing a steaming plate of pancakes and eggs in front of her.

"Marshall Mann...you are a GOD," she moaned, sinking her teeth into her first bite, eyes closed in bliss.

"If you cook like this all the time, I might have to wake up here every day," she breathed, ogling the array of food before her such that she missed the barely impercetible twitch of his lips.

Oh how little his jungle cat knew...Things were going to get _very_ interesting now that she was home and the lanky Marshal had no intentions of letting her escape.


End file.
